Greenhouses need not be permanent structures that are used for extended periods of time. There are often times when a greenhouse is only required for a short duration of time, and for such a requirement, your best bet would be to go in for a portable greenhouse. They are especially designed so that they may quickly be assembled which enables you to put them together in a jiffy and take them apart just as quickly. Ordinarily, putting a portable greenhouse can be accomplished within half an hour.

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Disease. Fusarium wilt disease. Cucumbers which are grown in greenhouses can fade for many reasons: water scarcity during the growth, too high temperature and intense evaporation, intense temperature fluctuations during day and night, cold water, too high fertilizer rates or too great concentration in chemicals. Very often once normal temperature and humidity conditions are retained, cucumbers recover. The excess of fertilizer can be eliminated by pouring lots of lukewarm water on the roots of plants. Wilt may be infectious in terms of its origin too - fungal and bacterial. Fungal wilt is caused by Agent Green (Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht.). Bacterial wilt is caused by Cyst pseudomonas (Pseudomonas solanacearum).

Poorly ventilated and damp greenhouses often develop the sclerotic rot in them. It is caused by a simple sclerotinia (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Lib. De baryon). The lower part of the stem of cucumber shoots start to rot and turn brown. Or when it is very wet, rotting parts of the plant encrust with white wool-like mycelium. Later inside or outside the decaying plant develop black, 0.5 - 1 cm cells - sclerotia. Sometimes once the moisture is adjusted there is no white mycelium or sclerotia and damaged parts of the plant rot dry. Diseased plants start to wilt. Cucumber core rot is more commonly found in greenhouses where the soil is not changed or disinfected often enough.
When dealing with the infectious nature of cucumber wilt the main safeguard is the disinfection of greenhouse soil. Withered plants must be uprooted together with the soil which is located on the plant roots. Grubbed plants can not be placed in the compost and must be burnt. Either that or you should dug a hole in a field and throw them out in there, afterwards pouring it with disinfectants and burying. You can plant new cucumbers into the place of the removed ones’. If you notice sclerotic rot in plants, damaged areas should be sprinkled slaked lime or wood ashes. If possible, the damaged areas should be cut and disinfected with 0.5% copper sulfate solution. Withered plants should be uprooted carefully in order to avoid scattering of sclerotia. To prevent the spread of rot it is necessary to always regulate the temperature, humidity and the greenhouse ventilation. When watering plants, water should always be poured on the soil rather than directly on plants.

Scurfs. Pathogen - cucumber scab (Cladosporium cu cumerinum Eli. Et Arth.). Most of the damage the disease causes for cucumbers which are grown in polyethylene greenhouses, even though sometimes it can be found in outdoor growing cucumbers too. Pathogen violates cucumber leaves, stalks, stems, fruits (brown spots appear). When the amount of moisture is sufficient, on the surface of stains blackish-green plaque appears. The pathogen - conidia plaque - causes most of the damage for the fruit: it becomes curved, stained with blackish-green arched spots. Spots of conidia can occur on other plants, as water drops (which occur on the top of the plastic greenhouses) splash them around.
The agent winters in crop residues. A collection and disposal of the waste as well as compliance with the rotation, disinfection of greenhouses and soil are some of the most important safeguards. As soon as the first signs of the disease are noticed, spray plants with fungicide, regulate the temperature and humidity.
Bacteriosis. The cause of the disease is Pseudomonas lachrymans (EF Smith and Bryan) Stapp). Bacteriosis is a very common disease among cucumbers both in greenhouses and outdoors. Infected cucumber leaves are initially pale and contain green fatty stains. Those stains later turn brown, become dry and once they come off the leaf remains holey. Similar spots form on cucumber fruit too. They become fragmented in time, and in humid weather the sticky greenish exudates - a mosaic of bacteria - ooze from them. Bacteriosis often develops in conjunction with scurf, which makes spots on the surface turn blackish-greenish.

The disease is spread with the seed as well as with the remains of sick plants. The most reliable measure of protection is a healthy cucumber seed. With the appearance of first symptoms of bacteriosis, cucumbers must be sprayed with fungicides. After harvesting crop residues should be collected and disposed.
Mildew - a very common leaf disease among cucumbers and other Cucurbitaceae family plants. It causes the appearance of powdery mildew (Erysiphe cichoracearum DC ex-Merai) on the plants. The disease causes widespread damage to both field and greenhouse-grown cucumbers. For the protection against mildew preventive measures must be taken: the destruction of plant residues, and the disinfection of greenhouses and soil.
Gray fruit bud rot. Pathogen - Gray Botryotinia (Botrytis cinerea Pers. ex Fr.) May damage any overground parts of the plant, but mostly the rings, stems, and fruit rudiments in particular. Damaged tissues tend to soften, rot and their surface encrusts with the gray cloudy fungal conidia plaque. Later, they form small black sclerotia cells. Disease can be spread from one plant to another with the spread of conidia, which is spread by the air currents, insects or humans. The pathogen winters in soil, and the remains of diseased plants.
For the protection against this disease the humidity in greenhouses must be controlled strictly. Plants should be planted sparsely so that the moisture does not accumulate between them. Infected plant parts should be cut with care (so that the minimum amount of spores is spilled) and burnt down. The soil in which plants used to grow should be either disinfected or replaced. By spraying cucumbers from time to time for the prevention of other diseases, you can protect against gray rot too.

Cucumber mosaic - one of the most important viral diseases of cucumbers. Pathogen - cucumber mosaic virus (Cucurnis virus I (Doolitle) Smith). First symptoms - young leaves mottled in mosaic pattern. Later on symptoms become apparent on older leaves too. Disease damaged fruits are also are mottled with rough, rugged surface. This disease is the reason why many of the plants die (wither), while the remaining ones result in extremely little crop. Cucumber mosaic can be spread among the crop very quickly; by doing various rural chores: trimming cucumber shoots, binding, taking the yield. Various pests can spread the disease too; by sucking the juice from the infected plants and then straight after moving onto the healthy ones. Disease is spread with the seed too.
For the protection against cucumber mosaic only healthy cucumber seed must be sown. Unknown seed should be kept for 3 days at 50 ° C, then 1 day at 80 ° C. In addition, the weeds should be manually rooted out, sudden temperature fluctuations in greenhouses avoided. When doing the maintenance of plants hands and tools must be disinfected, and sick plants removed and destroyed.
Cucumber pests. Red spider mite (red Vorel) (Tetranychus urticae Koch.) - The most dangerous cucumber pest of all. They are small, grey-greenish arachnids which are hardly visible to the naked eye. Wintering female arachnids are orange-red. Live on leaves, usually at the bottom side of them between thin cobwebs. Feed by piercing the epidermis and sucking plant juices. Firstly, they infest lower leaves. Infected places appear to develop small bright spots. When those spots merge, leaves turn pale and wither. Mites are particularly harmful to greenhouse cucumbers, much less to those grown in fields.

Protection measures. After harvest remove plant debris and disinfect empty greenhouses. Sustain optimal temperature in the greenhouse. Relative air humidity must be 80 - 95% as such environmental conditions are unfavorable for the development of spidery mites. The focus of pests must be sprayed with acaroids. Another promising biological method is the use of predatory mites.

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Garden care, gardening

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With all the stress on the environment today, carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction has become a major issue. With more than 20 million tons of carbon dioxide being produced globally each year; reducing carbon emissions, curtailing waste, and producing more clean energy are the call of the day. Eco-conscious individuals, businesses, and corporations are all striving towards reducing their carbon footprint. When emissions are reduced as much as possible or until it’s feasible to eliminate the carbon footprint, carbon offsets come into play. A carbon offset is a form of trading, specifically a credit for the reduction in harmful emissions not by the firm’s actions but through the work of another establishment. This credit is generated when the said establishment’s work results in a drop in the level of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions below a certain mandatory or voluntary cap. The mandatory/compliance cap is usually set by governments or an international body. Therefore, a carbon offset essentially lets an entity pay to reduce the level of these harmful pollutants rather than making any improbable or unachievable reductions on its own.

These carbon offsets are traded on a local, national and global scale. An international network of retailers, brokers and trading arenas exist to facilitate the buying and selling of these offsets. The offsets are normally measured in terms of a ton of carbon dioxide equivalents i.e. CO2e. Various activities can help create carbon offsets; for example, the use of renewable sources of energy such as wind power and biomass energy as well as participating in activities like reforestation and agriculture. The use of renewable energy systems can generate a tremendous carbon offset, due to the important fact that they eliminate the dependency on fossil fuels and virtually generate zero emissions.

As far as offset projects go, wind projects tend to be more sustainable and viable, especially since the process does not produce any ozone harming by-products and does not depend on fossil fuels. To quantify how many carbon offsets are generated by a wind farm, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), in 2008, the U.S. wind energy industry brought online approximately 8,500 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity. This production will help avoid nearly 44 million tons of carbon emissions - the equivalent of taking 7 million cars off the road. Therefore, for every megawatt of installed capacity, a wind farm can potentially earn approximately 5,175 of CO2e - the equivalent of taxing approximately 820 cars off the road. Wind energy generation organizations sell carbon offsets, benefitting both the buyer and the company. Buyers purchase these offsets because supporting wind power not only leads to the creation of a ‘green’ source of energy, but also helps ‘negate’ their own greenhouse emissions, big and small. Buying carbon offsets from wind farms are not only a way to ease the buyers’ conscience and reduce their carbon footprint, but can also be much less expensive than making changes to eliminate emissions. The wind energy generation facility itself profits because selling these offsets makes the project more financially viable and profitable, which helps increase the scale of productivity as well.

With environmental markets growing, it is necessary to understand the scope of emissions today.
There are three different scopes for carbon emissions that occur in the carbon footprint of an organization or business concern:

• Emissions that are created directly at the location, through direct sources like on-site machinery and apparatus like a generator located at a factory.

• Energy related emissions and indirect power based emissions like the electricity purchased by a company to keep the premises well lit up.

• Emissions that occur via indirect sources of emissions like those related to the use of paper in an office, corporate travel etc.

As the United States has neither ratified the Kyoto Protocol nor mandated any laws to cap its emissions as of July 2009, all carbon offsets are voluntary. Therefore, only two environmental markets coexist in the U.S. i.e. carbon offsets also known as voluntary emission reductions (VERs) and renewable energy certificates (RECs). Although these markets are interrelated, there are marked differences between the two commodities.

VERs or carbon offsets, also called carbon reduction ton, denotes activities that result in a cutting of, reduction and/or getting rid of one ton of greenhouses gases at a given site, to counteract an emission taking place in another. Typically these offsets are used to negate direct emissions or a scope one emission. For example a company can purchase carbon offsets created through a wind power project to ‘clear’ emissions created by a boiler in their office.

Offsets are subject to a rigorous set of guidelines, standards and rules. These guidelines primarily ensure that vital environmental and financial criteria are met so that customers can be assured that the offsets purchased are indeed authentic and verifiable. There is also an additionality requirement that represents the fact that a given greenhouse gas reduction project would not have been made possible without the expectation of additional funds procured from the sale of offsets. This is to ensure that the emissions reduction activity is in addition to regular business practice, hence facilitating a reduction that would not have happened otherwise in previous circumstances. In other words, countries and/ or businesses must make an active contribution to emission reduction in order to earn or sell credits instead of relying on pre-existing projects planned for other reasons with funds already committed. Thereby, ensuring buyers that their purchase will further the betterment of the global climate and environment.

RECs or renewable energy certificates denote one megawatt hour (MWh) of energy produced by a ‘clean’ renewable source. Energy produced by sources like wind, hydro, and biomass represents an offset because an environmentally friendly procedure replaces one using environmentally degrading fuel; emitting little to no carbon in the process. Emission reductions take place during energy creation, by replacing fossil fuel, at the utility itself. RECs are typically used to counteract indirect scope two emissions, wherein ‘clean’ megawatts of electricity by the REC can neutralize the unclean ones used by a company. RECs, however, are generally not held to the same standards and more importantly the additionality requirements like VERs. As a result, they can be supplied from resources that are running as is, or in part from additional business activities.

It is interesting to note that only renewable energy projects such as wind farms and solar power plants meet the highest standards required of carbon offsets, as the risks they pose to the environment are negligible and they encourage a much needed departure from fossil fuel usage.

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Vert Investment Group (”Vert”) is a leading renewable energy investment advisory firm focused on small to medium-sized utility-scale wind farm projects in strong power markets. Vert utilizes its proven methodology, the Staged Progression Model, to guide development projects to construction ready and identify investment opportunities that generate out-sized returns.

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